The small center on the north side of the avenue is set to be the focus of recreational marijuana in El Paso County, along with an additional yet-to-open Maggie's Farm location. With that in mind, employees were reticent about answering any specific questions about its offerings.

If you miss it next to Yakibob's, look for the huge sign. At Acme, you'll find the usual suspects offered, as well as a large selection of clones. "We probably have the best selection of clones," says one employee. "Everything grown and sold in the store comes from the same clones."

From a professional-looking lobby furnished with local art, Advance Cure for Vera Bestura — meaning "well-being" in Icelandic, says the center — offers organic medicine, as well as edibles, tinctures, rubs and accessories. Patients also get 10 cents back on every dollar spent.

Alternative Medicine
Colorado Springs

Strains: 15

OCC: 2606 W. Colorado Ave., 358-6955

Top strain: Sour Diesel

Top edible: incredibles

Expect to find glassware and accessories, as well as hash, clones, hash oils and edibles. Grams start at $8, and eighths at $25 for members. Also find discounts for seniors, those who travel to the center from out of town, and those who serve in the military. Members get a buy-one-get-one eighth every month.

Across from McCabe's Tavern, Altitude offers organic strains, tinctures, lotions, concentrates, edibles and a variety of large joints. "We are a top-shelf-only dispensary," says one employee. "It's all about quality here."

Located in the shopping center that also holds Extreme Bargains, Amendment 20 offers low prices for all. Find pipes, pain-relief lotions and massage oils, among other offerings, in a "homey, roomy environment," says one employee.

American Wellness Center

Strains: 20

OCC: 3632 W. Colorado Ave., 630-5075

Top strain: Cherry AK-47

Top edible: Brownies

Reza Hassani's American Wellness Center offers 3.7 grams of cannabis with every purchase of an eighth. Also keep your eye out for the occasional $99 ounce.

Military-veteran-owned Bijou Wellness Center offers edibles, various concentrates, high-end organic strains and a variety of therapies. Look for a focus on servicing the needs of veterans and active-duty military members — with offerings like acupuncture and psychological counseling — as well as daily specials.

Briargate Wellness Center

Strains: 32

Academy (North): 890 Dublin Blvd., Suite C, 598-3510

Top strain: Cataract Kush

Top edible: Edi-Pure

Joe DiFabio's BWC offers tinctures, creams and lotions, among other treatments. Also find hash oil, keef, $10 grams and $60 eighths of Caviar, and $75 quarters of many strains.

Like sister center White Mountain Medicine, Broadmoor WC is owned by Denver's LivWell. Look for a spa-like atmosphere where you can find candies, vaporizers, tinctures, hash caps, lotions, balms and more. Rotating $99 ounces are regularly available to non-members.

Canna Caregivers

Strains: 15 to 25

Academy (North): 3220 N. Academy Blvd., #4, 597-6685

Top strain: Kill Shot

Top edible: Canna Creations Kitchen

The Canna Center

Strains: 20 to 30

Powers: 2306 N. Powers Blvd., #100, 597-9333

Top strain: Cheese Quake

Top edible: Canna Creations Kitchen

Canna Caregivers offers a one-stop-shop experience, growing more than 70 strains, making its own infused-products through its in-house Canna Creations Kitchen, and selling a large variety of edibles and concentrates. The Canna Center, under the same ownership, also has copious glassware and accessories.

Sporting High Times covers from the '60s on the walls, Canna Meds offers lotions, balms, pipes, jewelry and hash, among other items. Different hydroponically grown strains are typically harvested every week, so the stock is "constantly revolving," says owner Chris Rice. "We're never out of any strains, ever." Eighths for top-shelf meds typically run around $30 for members and $40 for non-members, while new specials rotate throughout the week.

Located near Peterson Air Force Base, Cannabicare offers daily specials, a loyalty program, smoking accessories, and killer prices on edibles. "Nobody is selling them for less than us," says one employee. "I'm not lying."

Cannabis Therapeutics offers $21 top-shelf eighths, and daily specials including eighths starting at $12. Also find a variety of infused products like medicated bubble bath, edibles like bubble gum, a variety of smoking accessories, and a large selection of glass. Note that new strains are available every four weeks or so.

A Cut Above

Strains: 30

Central: 1150 E. Fillmore St., 434-1665

Top strain: Original Diesel

Top edible: Edi-Pure Edibles

Strains: 20 to 25

Academy (South): 3750 Astrozon Blvd., #140, 391-5099

Top strain: Purple Cheese

Top edible: SweetStone Candy

Though separately owned, both locations offer tinctures, hash, joints, and medical pain relievers. For convenience, find an ATM at the Astrozon Boulevard center, and a member-rewards system at the Fillmore one. Also there, "Hippie Hour" brings dollar joints between 4:20 and 5:20 p.m., while 4-gram eighths start at $15 and grams of Caviar at $18.

Discreet Treats

Strains: 32

Downtown: 101 N. Tejon St., 633-5947

Top strain: N/A

Top edible: Discreet Treats

Strains: 40

Academy (South): 288 S. Academy Blvd., Suite C, 630-2137

Top strain: N/A

Top edible: Discreet Treats

One of the earlier players in the Colorado Springs scene, Discreet Treats makes its edibles in-house, which include brownies, rice krispy treats, and pretzel sticks. All cannabis is also produced in-house, as is the center's wax. Find member pricing as well as daily specials, like 4.2-gram eighths on Tuesdays.

Doctors Orders

Strains: 10 to 12

Central: 2106 E. Boulder St., 634-8808

Top strain: Hawaiian Purple Kush

Top edible: Daba-Zaba Taffy

Doctors Orders offers custom glassware, earwax and bubble hash, stash boxes and a variety of edibles. Member pricing includes $27 eighths, $54 quarters and $180 ounces, while non-members get the same pricing on their first visit.

Eagle's Nest Wellness Center, located in the old Swiss Miss building, offers holistic and naturopathic medicines. There's also a dispensary — which the religion of Ho'ala Huna considers a natural offshoot of its practice — that offers rotating strains; full-melt waxes, like Huxley's Flake; and a large selection of edibles and concentrates.

Enlightened Care

Strains: 20 to 25

Northwest/Rockrimmon: 1330 Garden of the Gods Road, 531-7079

Top strain: Purple Haze

Top edible: incredibles

From its new location, the café-style center, with a coffee bar, waiting room and a showcase of different medications, offers first-timers a pre-roll as well as member pricing. It also carries top-shelf concentrates.

The Green House has a larger selection of everything, says one employee. Additionally: "We always have earwax and concentrates in stock."

Green Pharm

Strains: 27

Central: 325 Delaware Drive, 591-2070

Top strain: POW

Top edible: TinctureBelle's Snockers

Grams at Green Pharm start at $6.30, eighths at $20, and ounces at $124.20. First-time visitors receive member pricing at the center's discreet location.

The Greener Side

Strains: 10

Pueblo: 3321 S. Interstate 25, 719/251-4638

Top strain: Girl Scout Cookies

Top edible: Gaia's Garden

Strains: 10

Pueblo West: 749 Enterprise Drive, 719/547-4274

Top strain: Golden Goat

Top edible: Gaia's Garden

The original Greener Side location is described by owner Hank Borunda as "more laid-back with a nice hippie feel to it, out in the country," while the Pueblo West location, which opened in November, is "more up-scale with couches, a flat screen TV and wood floors." Despite the difference in ambiance, Borunda promises that the two stores carry the same great buds, soil-grown both indoors and in greenhouses. The original shop is hard to miss, with an enormous white dinosaur perched atop the building, and they're on the hunt for another beast to adorn the West store. As of Jan. 1, both locations are selling recreational cannabis as well.

GrowLife

Strains: 25

Southgate: 1516 Dustry Drive, 635-1700

Top strain: Killer Queen

Top edible: Mile High Edibles' Green Hornet gummies

GrowLife says its strains are 100 percent organic, hand-trimmed and soil-based, from growers unique to the center. Concentrates are made in-house, all eighths are less than $35 with caregiver designation, and GrowLife accepts debit cards.

Happy Buddha Wellness

Strains: 50

Academy (North): 3612 Galley Road, 638-1888

Top strain: Dawg's Waltz

Top edible: TinctureBelle

Owned by Terry Cullen, Happy Buddha Wellness offers a pleasant atmosphere and a private location, next to offices for a dentist and massage therapist. Look for $150 ounces for members.

The Healing Canna offers a spacious lobby, dispensary and patient-viewable flowering room. Find an incentive program for all customers, called Canna Cash, where every $420 spent yields a $35 credit toward the next $40 purchase; a "reefer-a-friend" program, where both parties receive $20 eighths; and mobile specials by texting "THC" to 719/355-8211.

The Healthy Connections

Strains: 11

OCC: 1602 W. Colorado Ave., 203-6004

Top strain: White Fire OG Kush

Top edible: Chronic Krispies

Though the name is expected to change soon, as The Healthy Connections is now under new ownership, it still offers a wide selection of keef, as well as $20 grams of wax.

Co-owner Jim (last name withheld) says members receive a gram and joint after signing up, 5-gram eighths thereafter, and an eighth on their birthday. "We have an RN on staff and an herbalist," says Jim, adding: "We make our own salves, lotions and candy," not to mention their own fertilizer.

Owned by husband-and-wife team Kasey and Ashley Knutson, THS offers $25 eighths on select strains to all patients, and $175 ounces for members. Also find clones, an increased selection of edibles and a variety of concentrates

Sister to Independent Records, Indispensary combines more than 30 years of customer service experience with a high-altitude, all-organic cultivation facility. The affiliated Realm of Caring nonprofit specializes in high-CBD strains designed to treat ailments, with no psychoactive side-effects. "We're helping those patients get the discounted oils they need," says one employee.

JP Wellness

Strains: 70 to 80

Academy (South): 1741 S. Academy Blvd., 622-1000

Top strain: Super Silver Haze

Top edible: Beyond Mars Fruit Chews

JP Wellness features a revolving lineup of strains; "a helpful, knowledgeable staff," as characterized by one employee; and edibles, concentrates and hashes. First-time customers get member pricing, while everyone gets it on Mondays. Also find TC Labs' shatter hash.

Levity Wellness is all about the discounts: On Mondays and Fridays, non-members get a joint with any purchase of an eighth (and the same deal applies every day for members)."And we always weigh heavy," says an employee. "All we carry is top grade, and we weigh it heavy."

LivWell

Strains: 30 to 40

Central: 570 N. Murray Blvd., 574-8443

Top strain: Blurple

Top edible: Beyond Mars Fruit Chews

Newly opened in 2014, the latest iteration of the nine-member LivWell chain offers a clean, modern space located near the Ramada Limited hotel. Find a "super friendly staff, and a huge space," says an employee. "It's pretty much, like, our flagship store."

LivWell White Mountain
Medicine

Strains: 20 to 30

Central: 3234 N. Nevada Ave., 622-6652

Top strain: 303 Kesha

Top edible: TinctureBelle

Owned by Denver's LivWell, White Mountain carries $100 pre-weighed ounces, as well as accessories like pipes, bongs and vaporizers.

Owner Bill (last name withheld) says his centers offer a full line of strains, as well as a variety of edibles. "My focus on this thing is meds," he says. "We're trying to be straight-up and simple." The center is likely to open a third location in Manitou Springs later this quarter.

Marimeds

Strains: 20

Downtown: 222 E. Moreno Ave., 634-8285

Top strain: Blue Cheese

Top edible: Cheeba Chews

The home of the Blue Cheese strain, Marimeds offers bubble and earwax hash made in-house, $200 organic ounces, and specials like spend-$100-and-get-various-freebies. Also note that strains rotate through around twice a month. On Sundays, all eighths are $30.

One of the few centers in this guide also selling recreational marijuana, Marisol, located near the Do Drop Inn, is still seeing long lines every day. Find a large selection of strains, edibles and concentrates, as well as the occasional visit from Tommy Chong, who visited in early January.

Medibis

Strains: 20

Central: 3701 N. Nevada Ave., 633-8882

Top strain: Alaskan Ice

Top edible: Dr. J's Hash Infused Medical Edibles

Currently located at the old greyhound racing track on North Nevada Avenue — but likely to move sometime this spring — Medibis offers strains grown in-house, as well as credit for members who refer new members. Look for eighths priced from $15 to $30.

MC Caregivers offers a full line of sublingual drops for sleep aid, depression, anxiety and more, as well as daily specials, made-in-house concentrates, vape cartridges and text-message discounts. "It's a great location," says one budtender. "We pride ourselves on professionalism, and a discreet location."

NaturaLeaf's new spot, one block south of their previous location, has successfully resulted in more foot traffic. Those folks found literature on a variety of health issues and $5 grams for members. Otherwise, enjoy keef and hash made in-house, as well as tinctures, balms, salves and edibles. "We're growing to the point where we are about to remodel," says shop manager Johnny. "Other than that, it's business as usual: Just growin'."

Owner David Jimenez says his recreational and medical dispensary doesn't look like a head shop, but has more of a "country club environment" — both "classy and modern." Not only does the center pride itself on the sleekness it keeps indoors, it's also planning to build an outdoor patio so customers can smoke outside. Jimenez also encourages patrons to check out the massage and acupuncture services offered, which come with discounts for members.

Nature's Way Wellness Center

Strains: 25

Academy (North): 5012 N. Academy Blvd., 531-6337

Top strain: Skywalker OG Kush

Top edible: Dixie Elixirs & Edibles' Colorado Bar

Now boasting a newly opened second location at 2815 N. El Paso St. — though more details were unavailable as of press time — Nature's Way offers shatter, earwax and CBD hash, as well as $10 eighths for first-time customers from its top shelf, or $20 from its "designer shelf." Also find vitamins, pipes and joints.

New Age Medical

Strains: 20

Powers: 6823 Space Village Ave., 597-4292

Top strain: Super Lemon Haze

Top edible: Incredibles

Strains: 20

West side: 1324 W. Garden of the Gods Road, 696-1402

Top strain: The White

Top edible: Edi-Pure Edibles

Formerly known as Humboldt Care and Wellness Center, New Age Medical, which also has a Denver location, offers members a $30 credit if they spend $30, and 20 percent off edibles and accessories. New patients get two free joints with their first purchase.

Located near Acme Pawnshops, the Seed offers vaporizer accessories, among other stock; Mahatma Extreme Concentrates; and specials on $150 ounces.

Original Cannabis Growers

Strains: 20

Central: 2625 E. St. Vrain St., Unit A, 475-9333

Top strain: Comfortably Numb White

Top edible: Keef Cola

OCG offers soil-grown, $25 eighths and $150 ounces on all strains for all customers, says owner Paul Elias. Also find an expansive selection of edibles, as well as weekly specials. "We're a simple center, but we keep it real," says Elias. "We're always expanding on as many good items that we can get." Buy an eighth and get the second half-off.

Near Middle Shooks Run Park., PMS offers a variety of tinctures, bath products, lotions, hash capsules made in-house and CBD syrups. Those who name it as caregiver receive $40 worth of hash oil every month.

PPAHW specializes in treating hospice and cancer patients, as well as those with disabilities, and now features an on-site notary. There are also grow classes, and do-it-yourself patients can purchase clones and growing supplies.

Pikes Peak Cannabis Caregivers

Strains: 25

Academy (South): 3715 Drennan Road, 216-5452

Top strain: G-13

Top edible: Dixie Elixirs & Edibles' Colorado Bar

Pikes Peak Cannabis Caregivers offers a wide array of edibles, infused products and smoking accessories. First-time customers who buy an eighth get a free pipe, as do patients who refer a friend.

Formerly known as Higher Elevation Medical Products, the Colorado Springs location of the Denver-based Pink House chain of MMJ centers grows over 150 strains organically in soil. The Super Silver Haze strain won Patient's Choice at the 2012 High Times Medical Cannabis Cup.

"People just feel comfortable, not like it's still frowned upon," says an employee at PWO, speaking about the establishment's focus on professionalism, where all cannabis is grown in soil. They plan on keeping things comfortable by maintaining the medicinal location and launching a separate recreational store, though they're uncertain as to when.

Pure Intentions
Wellness Center

Strains: 16

Academy (North): 201 N. Academy Blvd., 570-7432

Top strain: The Purps

Top edible: Dixie Elixirs & Edibles' Colorado Bar

Bud grams here start at $6.75, with members receiving pricing from $22 to $33 per eighth. Pure Intentions also sports 30-plus types of infused products, grams of earwax hash for $25 for members, and $3 edibles, also for members.

In addition to a broad array of Colorado-grown strains, Pure Medical carries edibles, tinctures, keef, hash, pipes and vape pens, as well as inventory from OrganiLabs. Also enjoy member pricing and a rewards program.

Rocky Mountain Medical

Strains: 20 to 25

Central: 616 Arrawanna St., 337-6132

Top strain: L.A. Confidential

Top edible: incredibles

Located off of East Platte Avenue, Rocky Mountain Medical offers a full lineup of concentrates, infused products from incredibles, strain-specific hash-oil pens, and center-specific pipes from Pukinbeagle Glass.

SF boasts "completely organic" marijuana, all of which is planted in soil and watered by hand by a grower. Also find "one of the largest collections of edibles in the state," says one employee.

Steel City Meds

Strains: 14

Pueblo West: 74 N. McCulloch Blvd., #120, 719/547-5152

Top strain: Pre-98 Bubba Kush

Top edible: Edi-Pure Edibles

The thing that sets Steel City apart from other centers is its focus on creating a personal experience. "We do an individual one-on-one sales [meeting] with the budtender, and try to find out what they've had, their history, what works and what doesn't work," says general manager Josh Behling, who adds that SCM's waiting until Spring to explore recreational sales.

Third Day Apothecary

Strains: 20 to 25

Academy (North): 4865 N. Academy Blvd., Suite B, 266-6699

Top strain: Acapulco Gold

Top edible: Caribbean Spice cookies

Third Day Apothecary is located on the northeast corner of Flintridge Drive and North Academy Boulevard. The center says all strains are grown organically, in-house, in soil.

Trichome, which opened in late 2008, specializes in high-grade clones, and carries a large selection of edibles, infused products and topicals. Also find 16 different concentrates.

A Wellness Centers

Strains: 21

Central: 2918 Wood Ave., 375-1907

Top strain: Sour Diesel

Top edible: The Growing Kitchen

Manager Tom Scudder has an idea of why people should shop here for edibles. "We've had six [or] seven vendors say we've got the biggest selection they've ever seen," he says, adding that the center also boasts the largest selection of Caviar, earwax and hash — like Grape God Shatter — in town.

RESOURCES

The following is a look at the variety of businesses and industries that have positioned themselves as resources for the medical marijuana industry. Send any listings we missed to bryce@csindy.com.